Supt. Hofmeister eliminates field tests for this year's state writing exams

OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 7, 2015) — Oklahoma State Superintendent of
Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister announced today that the Oklahoma State
Department of Education is eliminating field testing on this year’s state
writing assessments. The decision will free up valuable time for more classroom
instruction.

Since
taking office, Supt. Hofmeister has been studying options to relieve excessive
testing. Before taking action, she received assurances from testing vendor
Measured Progress that eliminating the field tests will have no negative
consequences.

“For the
past few months, I have been reviewing the assessment options available to our
state,” she said.

“At the
same time, I have heard concerns from parents, students and educators about
over testing. I know the standards and assessments are changing as required by
state law. In order to best utilize the limited time our teachers have with
their students for rich instruction, and after working with our state's testing
vendor, I have determined that the best course forward is to eliminate the
writing field tests for our students.”

Writing
tests are currently being sent to districts by the testing vendor. Each test
has two prompts — one that fulfills state requirements as well as a separate
field test. Measured Progress will work with districts’ test coordinators to
identify which prompts are the field tests.

Gov.
Mary Fallin praised the decision to get rid of the field tests as an example of
OSDE finding ways to end excessive testing and empower local schools.

"I
believe in the importance of testing as a means of ensuring our children are
getting the education and skills they need," said Fallin. "At the
same time, we all recognize that unnecessary testing can distract from the
learning process and divert resources that should be in the classroom. Supt.
Hofmeister has worked closely with educators and parents to identify and
eliminate a test we don't need, and I applaud her for taking this commonsense
step."

Field
tests provide testing publishers with feedback on the validity of possible
content for future exams by analyzing answers from students in real testing
environments.

The
field tests being eliminated would have doubled the amount of time needed to
complete the fifth- and eighth-grade writing exams and added an additional
writing prompt.